Police in Dundee praise community support after 'successful' Bonfire Night policing operation
A small number of anti-social behaviour incidents took place throughout the city
Police in Dundee are praising community support and the work of local policing teams on the 4th and 5th of November after a 'successful' Bonfire Night Policing operation.
Emergency services were geared up for their busiest night of the year across the country.
It came days after a small number of incidents in the Kirkton area on Halloween that saw fireworks set off, eggs and bottles thrown and a small fire set.
Despite incidents being kept to a minimum in the City of Discovery, there was serious disorder in parts of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Incidents on a 'considerably smaller scale' than previous years
Chief Inspector Echevarria said: “In recent years, we saw some particularly challenging scenes in the Kirkton area of the city, and we know this had a profound impact on those who live in this area. It also shone a negative light on Dundee as a whole and this was totally unacceptable.
“Since last year, we’ve done a lot of work with our partners at Dundee City Council and other organisations to enhance our engagement with the affected communities, improve the relationships between young people and police and encourage intelligence from the public that allows us to proactively target those intent on committing crimes involving fireworks.
“While there were small incidents of antisocial behaviour throughout Dundee on Bonfire Night, these were on a considerably smaller scale to what we experienced the previous year and I’m grateful to the overwhelming majority of the city’s resident’s for enjoying the evening in the proper spirit and helping us to keep people safe."
Police 'won't be complacent'
The Chief Inspector added: “We cannot be complacent on the back of this success and where offences did occur, we will be pursuing all lines of inquiry to identify those responsible, but I believe our partnership approach to tackling fireworks-related criminality, and using a range of different police resources, powers, and tactics, helped ensure disorder and disruption was kept to a minimum.”